


but i crept into your heart

by Illusively (Hermia)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-17 18:28:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hermia/pseuds/Illusively
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cora is an exceptional liar. After six years moving from pack to pack, unwilling to be introduced into any other sort of foster family, she learned how to survive, and that was done through manipulation both minor and massive in scope. One thing she never expected, though, was to eventually turn this weapon against her older brother and his pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	but i crept into your heart

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be adding ships and characters as they appear through the story! We'll have to see where it goes first!

Whoever was following her had to have some kind of teleportation device. No one --- human or werewolf – could travel that fast, not by car and definitely not by foot. She was quick enough to evade just about anyone, but this guy was superhuman. Everything inside of her screamed to run faster, to push herself harder, to get out of Beacon Hills and abandon any hope of reuniting with her family.

But every time Cora found a place to catch her breath, the same pair of boots followed, crunching on the concrete and wholly unafraid of being caught.

He didn’t have to be; he wasn’t the prey in this little exercise.

Her hair snagged on the bricks behind her head, tugging at her scalp before she could glance around the corner of the building. Caught between the apartments that stretched up into the sky was a film of fog stirred up by hot air on a damp street, colored green and yellow and red depending on the traffic light at the corner.

Each time it switched, still going despite not having a lick of traffic in the middle of the night, the fog that framed him became a different color. Red seemed the most fitting, outlining his wide shoulders and the collar of his shirt and the long line of his legs with a vibrant flood of almost-crimson.

Heart hammering against her chest, Cora twisted back flush against the side of the building, her eyes snapping between each of the handful of escape routes for the way that made the most sense.

Climbing would mean lingering in the same general area for too long, and she would eventually run out of buildings to jump across. To the right was the street and the cleanest, most obvious exit, but she’d also be running from him in plain sight. To the left there was an alleyway that ended in a tall fence. Not quite tall enough to keep her from jumping, but tall enough to give her pause.

There was no hiding. She knew from the claws on his hands and the tips of fangs pressing past his lips that he was a werewolf, so catching wind of her heartbeat and each stuttered breath from her lungs wasn’t exactly difficult.

She took off to the left in a run. Her tennis shoes slipping on the wet ground was just enough to keep her from falling into stride immediately, but she corrected her sprint on her feet, pushing her already tired muscles to move more quickly, to jump onto the nearby dumpster, to vault over the wooden planks only to fall to one knee on the other side.

When she straightened herself up, she felt a thrum of pain in her palm, lifting it to notice a splinter sticking out of the flesh. The sharp metallic scent of her own blood kicked her senses into high gear, and only then did she realize she wasn’t the only one standing in the alleyway past the fence.

Even before she recognized his face, Cora fell into an offensive stance, a fire spreading up her thighs as she crouched threateningly. When she did look him over, though, her heart skipped a beat in her chest, and the surprise nearly pulled her out of her aggression.

How had he gotten ahead of her?

His eyes flashed red and menacing beneath his heavy brow as he lowered his posture into something similar. He was taller than her, wider than her, and -- evidently -- faster than her; nothing about this fight was going to be fun.

Rather than facing him head on, Cora took a careful, though uneven breath and bounced on the balls of her feet. She appeared primed and ready to attack, but at the last moment, she turned around and jumped up, her claws digging into the soft wood of the fence.

Before she managed to haul herself up and over, a blow to the back filled her ears with the sound of wood planks snapping and sent the air rushing out of her lungs. A gasp left her rather than a scream, and she clawed higher on the fence for purchase, anything to get her back over to find another path. But the alpha behind her wasn't having that.

A second blow sent her skidding forward with a spray of splintered wood. Momentum kept her moving, kept her scraping on the cement until she came to a stop. The pain wrenched a sob out of her mouth, and when she attempted to get to her feet, a sharp stab in her shoulder dropped her right back onto her chest.

Her palms were burned raw, and she could feel the blood on her chest from where the ground scraped the skin from her collarbone. But even as she filled herself up with the injuries she'd be forced to recover from quickly, the only sound that echoed between her ears was the scuff of boots... on either side of her.

Snapping her head up, Cora watched the cocky stride of someone who knew the chase was over. He swayed on his feet, slowing down and grinning with just enough teeth for her to see the gash of white on his otherwise shadowed face.

Behind her, boots crunched rather than scuffed, grinding flecks of wood into the concrete with every step.

_Two_ , she told herself. _There's two of them. Figures._

Using her legs and avoiding putting pressure on her shoulder, Cora pushed herself up onto her feet, trapped between the two alphas but unwilling to let them take her lying down. Literally.

"We were worried you might make it out of the county," the one in front of her said. There was a slight whine in his voice, which was higher pitched than she expected from anyone quite so large. "That's why we split up, and that doesn't usually happen."

Steadying herself, she cradled her arm to her body. Keeping her eyes open while her shoulder's sprain eased was almost impossible. The pain always got worse before it got better, flaring up until you thought cutting the limb off might hurt less.

Cora's jaw twitched before her mouth set into a line. "I can't believe it took you two all night to catch me."

"We haven't been able to have any fun lately."

She didn't turn to face the one behind her. Beneath the sweat-soaked cotton of her shirt, goosebumps rose on her skin. This was bad. Capital "B," _italicized_ , and underlined Bad.

"It was good to get out," the one in front of her finished with another, smaller smile. He strode forward, reaching out to grasp her by the arm she cradled against her torso. He wrenched her towards him, and her injured shoulder screamed for her. The pain was too blinding to do anything but make her stomach churn. "You're not scared, but we should still probably tell you we're not going to kill you."

The one at her back stepped up beside him, and she saw through blurry eyes that he was taller than the other and somehow more physically imposing. "Unfortunately."

"We wouldn't get anything out of her," the first murmured, the claw on his thumb digging under the skin near her elbow. "He wants her alive, anyway. If she can't answer any of his questions, maybe he'll let us get rid of her."

Bile rose in the back of Cora's throat. She didn't have many questions of her own. Her safety wasn't even a question anymore. Someone wanted her, so she'd live and she knew that. But there was too much ambiguity in what they said to her, too many blanks not filled in, and it terrified her.

"Who’s 'he'?"

The taller twin laughed and gripped her by the scruff of her neck, shoving her forward. "You'll see."

* * *

Cora passed in and out of consciousness during the ride back to Beacon Hills. She was too exhausted to ride on the back of a motorcycle, so Ethan slipped his leather jacket over her shoulders and passed her off as his girlfriend under the scrutinizing eye of a taxi driver. It was too dark for him to see the blood smeared on her skin anyway; the exchange was simple enough.

Something was wrong. She was fine until Aiden dug his claws into her, then her vision swam and words didn't come and she'd have sooner thrown up in the back of the taxi than try to figure out what was going on.

Once they reached the city, he had the man drop them in an older district right in front of their destination. They paid with a smile and helped her out of the vehicle.

She stumbled over the curb, blinking as she leaned heavily against Ethan even after he removed his jacket and slipped it back on himself. Staring up at the building in front of them, it took a few solid seconds for her to remember the place in its prime. This was the bank where her mother took her to open up her first saving's account after she'd saved up enough money. It was abandoned now, broken and standing flanked by the deserted shells of apartments and businesses alike.

What had happened to Beacon Hills in the past six years?

Aiden shoved a hand between her shoulder blades, and she tripped over her feet again, swerving just enough to glare at him over her shoulder though the pathetic sidelong glance only made him chuckle under his breath.

The bank itself was hauntingly quiet. Cora could hear every breath, every even thrum of Aiden's heart and the beat in the much more excited Ethan's chest. Her own was sluggish, drowned out by the rush of blue light all around them and dust particles floating through the air.

Before they passed the old tellers' desks, they were joined by another werewolf. Her scent was unmistakable, and everything from her tightly knitted brow to the set of her jaw and her inch-long toenails screamed, 'Another alpha.'

The woman took her from the twins, curling a clawed hand around Cora's forearm tightly enough to dig her elongated nails beneath the first few layers of skin.

Cora barely flinched, and the woman only seemed to take her stubbornness for incentive.

But the pain was like jumping into a cold shower, and when she struggled, it intensified until she feared the woman would dig her claws into muscle rather than just skin. "Let me go," she said sharply. Her voice echoed through the hallways, though it was hardly loud enough to disturb anything more than dust.

The volume was only met with disdain, as if raising her voice was childish and meant to be ignored rather than tolerated. She was tugged forward again, and this time she gave an angry sob at the pain that followed.

She pitched the two of them back and forth, unwilling to go easily if it meant delaying whatever was going to be done to her. None of it was bound to be pleasant. "I didn't do anything! I was just -- I was passing through, alright?"

"You're a Hale." The woman barely managed to keep her eyes from rolling. "You weren't just 'passing through' Beacon Hills."

The truth bit into Cora's struggle, but removed only a piece. Her fight only intensified once she saw the open vault and felt the tell-tale prickle of foreboding. That's where the woman was hauling her. That's where she was bound to be imprisoned until she was able to answer questions she hadn't heard for the benefit of man she didn't know.

Her forearm twisted, held behind her rather than beside her, forcing the two to walk in a more orderly fashion, though Cora did what little she could to delay the trek towards the vault at the end of the hallway.

"Kali!" The woman twisted, though Cora refused to budge. "Who's the girl?"

She didn't recognize the new voice, but this one was more familiar than any of the others, like one she'd heard in a movie she didn't actually remember. Curiosity drove her to turn around, her tennis shoes shuffling on the worn tiles.

When she saw the man's face, her heart nearly fell out of her chest. More than just his voice was familiar. She remembered the cut of his jaw and the hulking mass of his body and the hair cut to his scalp. Except when she remembered him, she remembered a pack from miles away. She remembered his few words and his wife with her red hair and the apartment with the queen sized bed she slept in for almost half a year after the fire.

The light of recognition only flared in his eyes when Kali spoke. "The Hale girl Deucalion wanted," she said. Her claws dug deeper, if only to make a point of her flinching. This time, she did.

Instead of saying a word, Ennis maintained his otherwise blank expression and nodded, filling up the glass doorway leading into the main offices for a moment before disappearing inside. And just like that, Kali managed to pull her down the hall and shove her into the vault, her claws sliding back the moment Cora hit the floor.

Forcing up onto her feet, Cora launched herself forward as the door slammed shut and locked with a loud, hollow noise, one that sounded like nothing but finality.


End file.
